A European Commission digital content initiative launched Monday could result...

A European Commission digital content initiative launched Monday could result in solutions to the most vexing copyright issues, Internal Market and Services Commissioner Michel Barnier said. “Licenses for Europe” is a “structured dialogue” among all stakeholders on four issues: (1) Cross-border portability of services that offer online access to content. (2) Internet availability of European films. (3) Content which reuses other online content. (4) Tapping into the potential of new text- and data-mining activities. Licenses for Europe won’t be just a talking shop but a place where industry and consumers find fast, specific solutions, Barnier said. Contractual arrangements generally work faster than laws, but legislation can, where appropriate, answer certain problems, he said. Digital technology used to be viewed as a threat to content rather than an opportunity, said Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes. That “wrong approach” led to “a lot of highly polarised debates,” but didn’t create any winners, her written comments said. The right approach is to adapt practices to fit new digital opportunities, she said. Music streaming services are increasingly popular and widespread, she said. There’s a “Spotify effect” in which music piracy is no longer an issue in Sweden because there’s a good legal alternative. And in France, digital is now the third largest revenue source for collecting society SACEM, she said. Technology and society are moving forward faster than the law and content licensing practices, she said. Content is needed for the digital economy, and the dialogue is intended to show that “technology and copyright can go together.” Kroes urged stakeholders to keep open minds and not to assume that new licensing mechanisms will resolve every issue. The solution could come from technology and data, along the lines of the global repertoire database, or something not even on the table yet, she said. Europe’s cultural and creative sectors account for up to 4.5 percent of EU GDP and employ more than eight million people, said Education and Culture Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou. Licenses for Europe is about “searching for pragmatic, ‘bottom-up’ and short-terms solutions” to urgent questions such as the rights and obligations of users, re-users and creators of digital content, she said. French citizens’ advocacy group La Quadrature du Net, however, accused the EC of an “outrageous attempt to avoid copyright reform.” Licenses for Europe won’t amount to broad reform of sharing and remixing rules, but will be a “parody of a debate,” it said. Three-quarters of the participants in the working group on “users” are industry-affiliated, and the themes and objectives are defined to ensure that industry has its way, it said. La Quadrature is registered to take part in the working group on user-generated content, but everything “in its name, theme and mission is biased to fit the views of the entertainment industry,” the group said. The EC has shown its contempt for citizens by framing the talks to benefit industry and not to reform copyright, it said.